Music Videos

Why Everyone Loves Music Videos

Music videos are very popular today, but they’ve been around for some time (a long time for teenagers). Think of the Beatles and Elvis Presley, and they weren’t even the first. The genre has come a long way since its inception. It is a really cool medium, as it allows the music composer to bring extra meaning to their compositions, or underpin the existing emotions with pictures. This shift in thinking can be seen really well in videos nowadays.

In the old days music videos used to just feature the band playing the song. This was cool, as viewers got to see the band play, and this was not all that common in those days. You either went to a Beatles concert or you never got to see them. People today are so used to TV, YouTube, Google Video and whatnot, that this caused a change in music videos. They started becoming more “artsy”, a new form of art in themselves. They can have deep meaning, or just be fun, but it’s usually about more than just the band. This is actually a win-win type of situation. Viewers (listeners) get more for their money, they can discover new dimensions. The band is happy to convey these thoughts to the public, they can also induce special feelings they want. Directors and the movie industry in general wins, because of the richness of the medium.

Types of music videos

I find that it is quite easy to categorize videos into three genres, namely:

Showing the band: This genre, that was so dominant in the old days is still alive today, especially if you have a music video of a live performance.

Meaningless: My name designation is not that good, as it sounds like these are bad videos. This is far from the truth, they just don’t have too much deep thoughts. Barbie Girl for example has a sort of visual representation of the song.

Deep meaning: These videos have a sort of inner meaning. You can usually see these accompanying songs that already have a deep meaning anyway. Saving me from Nickelback is a good example here.

Whatever the genre, there are good and bad videos. I quite like footage from live performances, many people don’t have the urge to see meaningful videos all the time. There are great videos in each genre, and for some songs you really should watch the music video, as It does give you that extra perspective on the meaning.